Hello everyone!
I recently updated to the newest IC2 Experimental version and I'm quite interested in the new Water Mill (mostly because I really don't like spamming the Wind Mills across the landscape).
However, I can't seem to find any decent information on how to use them other than biome requirement.
Here is what I found/tried so far:
1. The generator cube itself has to be inside River or Ocean biome.
I don't have an ocean nearby so I tried expanding a river bed and placing it there. Ok, this worked, so far so good.
Result: Generator has to be placed inside River or Ocean (F3 to check biome).
2. Rotors?
I tried using wooden rotor which should be compatible according to Wiki, but it is not. When I open up the generator interface and hover over rotors, it says wooden ones are not compatible, which is a shame as this would have been a really nice starting watermill.
I tried making an iron rotor, and this one actually worked (have not tested steel or carbon yet... not enough power and blast furnace time in the new world).
Result: Wood rotors don't work. Iron rotors at least work.
3. Kinetic units/efficiency and calculation?
How does this work?
With wind generator I understood that there was a maximum kinetic generation determined by rotor type and wind strength, and this was reduced by any objects present inside a certain area around rotor (rotor size in left/right/up/down). I was never sure how far forward and back had to be cleared, except that if there was another rotor anywhere within 32 cubes forward or backwards, the rotor would not turn.
How is water kinetic generator efficiency calculated? Is it the same formula as for the wind, but instead of counting empty air blocks it counts water source blocks? Up/down/left/right needs to be cleared enough to accommodate the rotor, that much I confirmed. But how much clearance do we need in the front / back direction to have a working rotor, and how does presence of water/air in the affected area change generated kinetic energy? If we dig and some cubes below water surface are not source blocks (e.g. if we dig several layers deep to make room for the rotor), do these count against efficiency?
How big a distance front/back do we need so as not to conflict with another water kinetic generator?